Numbers
by AV21
Summary: Ficlets and drabble tags missing scences on Vala and Daniel through Season 10.
1. Five

**Five**

(Flesh and Blood)

She swept her fingers through the candle's flame again, fighting the path her wandering mind took every chance it was granted. Fire, she forced herself to focus on being swallowed by the fire, consumed in the ignominious death that ripped her away from her body. That memory was less painful. Flames slithering towards her, licking up her skirts, and devouring the flesh off her bones.

But then it came. She rialed against it, beating it back, begging her subconscious to give her just a moment's peace. The Ori had come through her, they'd taken her life, violated her body, all she had left was her mind and that was in rebellion. Her soul, Origin believed that the Ori watched over everyone of their children's souls, but they didn't guard hers. It lived with him.

That voice rose in her memory, in desperate supplication that the mob would let her go. The sound of his voice called her liar every time she convinced herself she loved Tomin. She would feel the child swell in her stomach, believing she would never see her galaxy again. It wasn't that bad here, she would tell herself, fresh air and trees were better than the starship she would find herself on. That world spoke to her, good ground for gardening, a child, domesticity, all things a woman should want. A new kind of hope was kindled with this babe. Here she was normal, with no leftover baggage from a Goa'uld, the life she had begged for all those years she'd spent trapped in her own mind.

Then Daniel's voice would bubble up and rip her through. She'd wake in a sweat, her very bones aflame and defiance rewoken, all at his call.

Her water had broken the moment they'd entered her home galaxy, and it was enough reality to stifle the thought that Daniel would be out there waiting. That child had churned in her belly every time she dreamt of Daniel, remembering the rush that coursed through her at his tender kiss. She'd never known honor had a taste, possibly because she had never known a man who smoldered with purity. She was still drunk with it, addicted to the unknown spice that haunted her.

She had prayed in those nine months, pled that there could be any way, any accident, something that would make this child Daniel's, and not the Ori. She struck deals with every deity save the Ori as she gave birth; a silent plea the child would have a soul. Daniel could give that to the babe, he'd given one to her.

Now she sat gazing out the window of her cabin, waving her fingers through the flame in a desperate attempt to find some pain stronger than the explosions resounding in space. He was alive somewhere, she knew that. If he had left this world she would feel it. How could she not know if her soul had been ripped from the world? He lived, he had to.

"Please."


	2. Four

**Four**

(Post-Morpheus)

She was reading the Bible. Vala Mal Doran was quietly sitting on the couch in the corner of his office reading a very tattered copy of the Bible. He was in shock. He'd explained the religious nature of the book to her, but she kept reading it, devouring it as she had every fashion magazine and trite piece of fiction he'd paraded in front of her to try and keep her quiet.

He was getting nervous. A quiet Vala was a dangerous Vala, and this was a big buildup of quiet.

He'd attempted to tell the good stories, ones of the matriarchs, but apparently his sermons were only interesting in life or death situations Now Cam was sitting with her, putting a little "fire and brimstone," as he called it, into the stories, trying to draw her attention out of the office of an increasingly frazzled Archaeologist.

"Just follow me Vala, we'll get you something from the cafeteria and I'll tell you all the good stories."

She gave him a look of disbelief, and Mitchell simply pulled an apple from his pocket to tempt her out with food. She snatched the apple as her stomach rumbled in want, and muttered as she went out the door with a fervent gaze at Daniel. "So long as they're about women. I'm getting bored with tales of holy, celibate men."

Cam kept his cool as he faced Daniel, "I've got this great one about a woman named Eve that I think you'll like. It's all about temptation and sin."

Daniel glared at him and muttered, "I'm the nonbeliever, but right now, I'm pretty sure you're the one going to hell."

Cam just grinned, "Oh I'm sure you'll be joining me."

Vala chomped on that apple as she did her saucy walk out the door, and grined wickedly at Daniel. "I like sin."

Cam smirked again and said, "At least you'll have more fun getting there Jackson." They went down the hall, with Mitchell saying just loud enough to start the gossip mill, "And I think you'll love Bathsheba. She slept with one of the most righteous men ever to walk the earth."

"She broke him?"

"Yup."

Vala stopped dead in the hallway, forcing a large group of nurses to tumble around her, and turned to face Daniel standing in the doorway. "Sounds like my kind of girl."

He blushed.

She took a bite.


	3. Three

**Three**

(Pegasus Project)

She knew Daniel had ascended, and not just from the theory roaming around the SGC that still being halfway there made him immune to the evils of the galaxy that kept trying, and failing, with the whole killing him thing. As many times as they told her the tales of Daniel magically reappearing from the dead (each time in various states of undress, a feat she hoped to see soon) she had never quite understood.

But Morgan le Fay spoke to Daniel as an equal. The almighty Ancient risked her life to descend and speak with Daniel Jackson, to give him the knowledge to stop the Ori. The most powerful beings in the known universe turned to Daniel for help, they trusted him to save the world, and he trusted her. What had she gotten herself into?

He was a saint, an angel, literally, and this demigod spoke for her. She wanted to be worthy of such attention, making herself a new life, adopting his family, working for others, and finding out she could be good.

But then Daniel would show such compassion and mercy to every villager on every planet they ever came across. The man was bursting at the seams with the love he felt for the world and she wanted to run again. Every time he played with the children, or helped the old women she wanted to scream at him. Want him to do something cruel, for once to ignore these people he would trade his life for. Maybe then she would feel special.

He was good to everyone, it shouldn't mean so much that he was good to her, but heaven help her, it did. She hated him for loving everyone because it made her love him more, but feel like he loved her less.


	4. Two

**Two**

(Counterstrike)

Fury burned in those eyes. Rage at those who'd stretched forth their hand to spare him time and again. The Ori in her wanted to melt the flesh from him bones, but she wouldn't do it. Her mother had been chosen poorly, for Adria carried Vala's defiance, and that fragment bid that she protect him. She bore her mother's memories the same as those of her father race, but tonight Vala's heart burned brighter than the Ori's.

Affection would ripple beneath the anger; little pockets of spirit that Vala had bestowed upon her child. No matter the order, she couldn't kill her mother's love.

She wished Vala would return to broken Tomin and find her way to the true path, but this was the man she chose to follow. She would betray Origin for him, swearing her soul to the service of her enemies, all for his sake.

Adria would spare him, this child of false gods, and he knew it. He stared back at her with no fear in his azure eyes, quite the opposite in fact. The wrath surged again, for she'd given too much away. She'd betrayed her mother's secret, and he knew why he was alive.


	5. One

**One**

(Momento Mori)

She saw their faces, she knew them, but memories dripped through her fingers like rain. She looked into those deep blue eyes, the force of his will making her try again. She closed her eyes focused on the memory of those azure eyes in front of her. The faces of her team streamed across her mind once more, sending a sensation of trust and loyalty with them this time. Then those eyes came back to her. Eyes full of compassion and love, and they lit her on fire. The word choked from her, her resurrection born in one word.

"Daniel."


End file.
